BOULDER — As one of the young standouts of Colorado’s spring drills, redshirt freshman cornerback Deji Olatoye has not made a ton of mistakes during the last four weeks. On those occasions when he slipped up, it’s probably a good thing his parents are back home in Ohio and couldn’t watch.

Olatoye can always hear them.

“They’ll start speaking Nigerian,” he said with a grin. “When they’re mad, that’s when it comes out.”

Olatoye (whose full name is pronounced Day-Ghee O-la-toy-ye) was born in Cleveland and grew up in suburban Columbus. His parents moved to America three decades ago. Olatoye can understand some of his parents’ language, but he does not consider himself bilingual.

That is, unless learning the vocabulary and meaning of CU’s defensive playbook counts. In that regard, it could be said he’s becoming fluent. Olatoye, 6-feet-1 and 195 pounds, has impressed the coaches.

Olatoye opened some eyes last fall, enough to be promoted from the scout team after three weeks.

While redshirting, he worked with the first and second teams so he could be ready in case CU had a rash of injuries at cornerback. This season, Olatoye is expected to back up seniors Jalil Brown and Jimmy Smith.

” Just getting on the field this year will be big for me. I just need to continue to work on my technique so I can cover my man or be in the right gap. I’ll do whatever I can to help the team. I’ll play on special teams, anything.”

Olatoye is considered something of a late bloomer. He grew up playing soccer and didn’t give football a try until his sophomore year of high school. Although Olatoye ran sprints in high school and set a school record with a 6-4 high jump, recruiters did not exactly beat a path to his door.

Hometown Ohio State asked him to be a preferred walk-on. After Colorado and Michigan, his next-best scholarship offer came from lower-level Villanova.

“Not having played football until 10th grade, I was underrated, I guess,” Olatoye said. “People didn’t think I could develop enough. I’m just trying to prove them wrong.”

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